Fire escape devices are utilized for descending a vertical strand, such as a rope or cable, to enable users to lower themselves down the sides of buildings when trapped on upper stories during a fire. Various devices allowing for slow descent when applied to a vertical strand have been used to facilitate evacuation during a fire or other emergency. Representative fire escape devices are depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,761, Sonnberger; U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,726, Sentinella; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,198,926, Kemp.
Such devices act as brakes when descending down a rope or other vertical strand which has been provided for an emergency egress from an upper story of a building. The devices slide along the rope with various braking systems incorporated therein to slow the rate of descent by applying frictional forces to the rope.
These prior art devices, however, have proven ineffective in situations where time is of the essence for an easy escape. To illustrate, potential users may encounter difficulty in locating a rope, or cable, of sufficient strength and length to support the potential user; also, under emergency conditions, previously stored escape ropes and the like may be situated in inaccessible locations. Only the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,896,415, Pyles, incorporates a strand into the escape device. However, none of the prior art emergency escape devices known to the inventors combine all of the advantages of the preferred self-contained embodiment of the instant invention. Additionally, serious, even life-threatening problems have occurred with known emergency escape devices when the user has lost his grip of the controls for the braking device. All of these disadvantages of the conventional emergency escape devices have been remedied by the instant invention with resultant benefits to the prospective users.